1761 in Great Britain

1761 in Great Britain:

Other years

1759 | 1760 | 1761 | 1762 | 1763

Sport

1761 English cricket season

Events from the year 1761 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig)
• Parliament – 11th (until 20 March), 12th (starting 19 May)

Events

• 16 January – in India, general Sir Eyre Coote captures Pondicherry from the French.[1]
• 8 February – an earthquake in London breaks chimneys in Limehouse and Poplar.
• 8 March – a second earthquake occurs in North London, Hampstead and Highgate.
• 9 March – Hexham Riot ("Bloody Monday"): a crowd protesting at enlistment to the militia in Hexham (Northumberland) is fired on by members of the North Yorkshire Militia with around 45 killed and many more wounded.[2]
• 25 March–5 May – a general election is held. The Whig party retains its majority.
• 15 July–16 July – Seven Years' War: a combined Prussian-Hanoverian-British force led by Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats a large French army at the Battle of Villinghausen.
• 17 July – James Brindley completes the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester.[3]
• 15 August – Seven Years' War: France and Spain sign the Pacte de Famille forming an alliance against Britain.[1]
• September – Secretary of State for the Southern Department William Pitt the Elder fails to garner support to declare war on Spain.[1]
• 8 September – King George III marries Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz at St James's Palace.[3]
• 14 October – Great Malvern Tornado.[4]
• 22 September – coronation of King George III.[5]
• 5 October – Pitt resigns as Secretary of State for the Southern Department.[3] The Tory The Earl of Bute forms a new administration.[1]

Undated

• Industrial Revolution: Establishment of Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory near Birmingham to serve the "Birmingham toy industry", considered as the first factory for the production of metal goods in Britain.[6]
• Buckingham Palace, London, sold to George III; remodelling as a house for Queen Charlotte will begin the following year.[7]
• First church of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion opened, in Brighton.[8]
• The village of Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire is demolished and rebuilt on a new site by Simon, Earl Harcourt to improve the landscaping of Nuneham House.[9]

Publications

• Frances Sheridan's novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph.[10]

Births

• 17 January – James Hall, geologist (died 1832)
• 13 March – Henry Shrapnel, British Army officer and inventor (died 1842)
• 7 June – John Rennie the Elder, civil engineer (died 1821)
• 27 October – Matthew Baillie, physician and pathologist (died 1823)
• 13 November – John Moore, general (died 1809)
• 30 November – Smithson Tennant, chemist (died 1815)

Deaths

• 4 January – Stephen Hales, physiologist, chemist, and inventor (born 1677)
• 10 January – Edward Boscawen, admiral (born 1711)
• 9 April – William Law, minister (born 1686)
• 15 April – Archibald Campbell, Duke of Argyll, politician (born 1682)
• 17 April
  • Thomas Bayes, mathematician (born c.1702)
  • Benjamin Hoadly, theologian, Bishop (born 1676)
• 14 May – Thomas Simpson, mathematician (born 1710)
• 4 July – Samuel Richardson, writer (born 1689)
• 30 November – John Dollond, optician (born 1706)
• 23 December – Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, Jacobite spy (born c.1725)

References

1. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
2. Smith, D. W. (January 1980). "The Hexham Riot". Northumberland and Durham Family History Society Journal. 5 (2).
3. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 222–224. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
4. "Historical Chronicle, Oct. 1761". Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. 31: 477. October 1761. OCLC 173346685.
5. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
6. Gale, W. K. V. (1952). Boulton, Watt and the Soho Undertakings. City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
7. Harris, John; de Bellaigue, Geoffrey; Millar, Oliver (1968). Buckingham Palace. London: Nelson. p. 24. ISBN 0-17-141011-4.
8. Drury, Jennifer (2012-08-24). "North Street – The Countess of Huntingdon's Church". Brighton and Hove. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
9. Lobel, Mary D., ed. (1957). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5: Bullingdon Hundred. Oxford University Press. pp. 234–249.
10. Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.

See also